Quotes by Billy Bragg

About Billy Bragg:

Stephen William "Billy" Bragg is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes. He has been called the "Bard of Barking".
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I came into this whole business by going to see Rock Against Racism gigs with the Clash.

Billy Bragg

That taught me one lesson which is that you're naive to believe that bands can change the world. Bands are very naive to think that just if their audience thinks that they can change the world, that they can. That was quite a lesson for my career, re...

Billy Bragg

I'm trying to make a case for those people who don't have a sense of belonging that they should have, that there is something really worthwhile in having a sense of belonging, and recasting and looking at our modern history.

Billy Bragg

All the great political music was made at the height of political confrontations.

Billy Bragg

But, in the end, even a song that's as politically bland as Blowin in the Wind, you probably wouldn't get up and sing that now, whereas some of Bob Dylan's love songs that were contemporary with that, like say Girl from the North Country, you can sti...

Billy Bragg

So, in some ways, the political songs tend to be a bit more like reportage, whereas the love songs tend to be like novels, you can pick them up off the shelf and go into them any time.

Billy Bragg

By the time I was 19, punk had occurred. It had a completely different cultural dynamic to it which rejected everything and started again from the year zero.

Billy Bragg

It's not a very popular subject amongst my audience, who are by nature more internationalist, but I don't choose what to write about, I don't choose my subjects, they kind of choose me.

Billy Bragg

Being spokesman for a generation is the worst job I ever had.

Billy Bragg

An isolationist America is no bloody use to anyone.

Billy Bragg

I try and write honestly about what I see around me now.

Billy Bragg

I was in a little punk band and we put out a few punk records that weren't very political, at all.

Billy Bragg

In that sense, I became politicized because the people in the coal mining villages who were involved in the struggle knew why they were there. But they couldn't understand why some pop star from London would want to be there.

Billy Bragg

My theory is this; I'm not a political songwriter. I'm an honest songwriter.

Billy Bragg

My upbringing was very straightforward suburban working class upbringing.

Billy Bragg

The most important thing for anyone, I think, is to be engaged, whether you're an artist or a journalist is to be engaged in the process at some level.

Billy Bragg

There are quite a few honest songwriters out there writing about relationships and their own personality traits. But for some reason, once they step out of the bedroom, their honesty doesn't seem to come with them.

Billy Bragg

We read our own political content into The Clash, and they accepted it.

Billy Bragg

I enjoyed so much working with the guys from Wilco, and riffing off of them, and having someone come up to me with ideas, because normally in the studio it's me who has to come up with all the ideas.

Billy Bragg

Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.

Billy Bragg

Author Bio

  • NameBilly Bragg
  • Descriptionsinger, musician
  • BornDecember 20, 1957
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionSinger-songwriter; Songwriter; Guitarist; Writer